Cupcake Mountain

Rate this Recipe:

Average: 3.1(17 votes)

This cake eliminates waiting turns for pieces to be cut from the birthday cake at a high-energy children’s party. Every kid gets a cupcake and the “mountain” gets squeals of excitement when it appears, chocolate-frosted, decorated with M&Ms and colored sprinkles, and blazing with candles. The recipe is an easy yellow cake; use paper liners for the muffin tins.

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter

1-1/4 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

2-1/4 cups flour

2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup milk

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350º F. Prepare muffin tins with liners. Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla. Fork-sift dry ingredients together and add alternately with milk to the creamed ingredients until well mixed. Fill 15 liners ⅔ full. Bake about 20 minutes or until cupcakes are brown on top and test done with a toothpick.
Cool and frost with Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting. When the frosting is dry, arrange cupcakes in 3 or 4 tiers, building a pyramid that is a cake of cupcakes. Begin with 7 cupcakes arranged in a circle on the bottom. Scatter this layer with M&Ms. Then add a tier of 4, then 3, then 1. Scatter M&Ms and sprinkles to decorate. When serving, keep a knife handy to respread any frosting that sticks to the bottom of the liners.

Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting

Ingredients

3 ounces unsweetened chocolate

4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 to 1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Add butter and stir until blended. Pour into a mixing bowl. Beat in confectioners’ sugar and salt alternately with a few drops of milk at a time until frosting reaches the proper consistency. Beat in vanilla.